Printing devices in modern office environments or other document production environments are used for printing in order to effectuate functions such as copying, faxing, printing from a computer or other electronic device, and so forth. For example, a copying function can be effectively accomplished by combining a printing with a scanning function.
The type of print engine used in a printing device can affect various aspects of the printing function. These aspects include speed, durability/upkeep, output quality, and so forth. One print engine type is a laser printer. With laser printers, although output quality is especially high, a period of time is consumed while making the print engine ready for printing, which can affect the speed aspect of printing. The speed aspect may be affected in this regard because a print engine that is maintaining a ready state experiences wear and tear that shortens the useful life of the print engine.
When performing a printing operation, a tradeoff may exist between the time used to complete the printing operation and the incremental wear and tear experienced by the laser printer as a result of the printing operation. For example, steps that are taken to reduce the incremental wear and tear experienced by the laser printer to perform a printing operation may lengthen the time used to perform that printing operation.